Additional Information
PAN M 360 content creator Z Neto Vinheiras had a lovely chat with British producer & DJ Lucas Hunter aka Luca Lozano K and his Chinese colleague Michael Ho also known as Mr Ho, heads of the Hong Kong based label Klasse Wrecks – a multifaceted label combining sound, visuals, design and kinship over an electronic music scene and rave culture. Brought to the Dômesicle by La Rama Records, they will be playing this Saturday January 24 at SAT.
PAN M 360 : Would you like to start by giving a little introduction of yourselves and your different practices?
Lucas Hunter: I am Lucas Hunter aka Luca Lozano which is my name when I record music and travel as DJ; I’m one half of the duo that runs Klasse Wrecks, the record label that was born in Berlin about 10 years ago and carries on with me in the UK and Michael in Hong Kong. We release records, a lot of zines, we self publish books as well; we produce music and DJ – under the general banner of Klasse Wrecks but also as separate recording artists.
Michael Ho: My name is Michael Ho, I’m the other half of Klasse Wrecks. I produce music and DJ under the name of Mr. Ho, and I guess Lucas explained the rest!
PAN M 360 : How did your collaboration start?
Michael Ho : We met in Berlin DJing, we had a lot of mutual friends. We were working under different monikers, in different projects at the time, and I guess we were getting a little bit bored in those; Lucas had the idea to start a label and asked me to join.
PAN M 360 : Klasse Wrecks is not just a record label releasing music; there’s care with each individual project, the artwork, and as you said, you also produce zines, books and clothing. Was this already in your imagination when you first started or was it something that gradually expanded into your other practices as visual artists?
Lucas Hunter: It started as a very straightforward record label – we kinda of really only put out records. The artwork and the visual side was always a big part of it because I’ve always done graphic design and I’m a big fan of certain designs and graphics. We had a small crew in Berlin, and the sole purpose of was to just put out records and that’s what we did for a while. Then we started doing tapes as well, we did this series called Graffiti Tapes, which is involved with graffiti people that make music as well and I think that was the first thing that was outside the usual remit of a record label and it started kind of branching off. That was also very interesting to work with the visuals because we wanted to incorporate the artwork of the artists and show the history of their work and show the music. Then the idea of zines came about, the first one was a record label logo archive that we did. It was so popular that we decided to keep on doing the series and build on that. And that’s really grown into like, KFAX having its own identity even though being part of Klasse Wrecks; people know about KFAX but don’t know about Klasse Wrecks maybe. So yeah, it started off as just music and just for us as artists, but it kinda mutate into this bigger scene.
PAN M 360: As label owners, what do you aim to share with an audience/community?
Michael Ho: Musically it’s really just us releasing music that we like – we try to not follow trends; it sounds pretty cliché to say this but it’s really just stuff that we like rather than think if this is gonna sell. We release music from artists that we feel need to be heard – a lot of the artists we release might be their first or second release. A lot of them actually get on to become pretty well known and it’s quite an honour that they chose us as a home for their first release. I think it’s because the taste of the label is quite eclectic, it’s very personal, you know, based on friendship and common passions. Most of the people we work with have a certain degree of personal connection.
PAN M 360: What’s your connection to La Rama?
Lucas Hunter: I was DJing in Bogotá, Colombia, and I just remember Kris Guilty, who runs La Rama, turning up at the club or for dinner straight from the jungle and I was just like “oh this guy is awesome, who is this dude” you know, turning up to the party super laid back coming off of the wilderness on his own. So we stayed in touch since then, we had a really good time in Bogotá. Since then I’ve done a couple of pieces of artwork for his label and I’ve been to see him when I’ve been to Montréal before which is a handful of times. What he does is quite similar to what we do, he has quite a similar approach to music and the kind of music he wants to release, from his wife and his friends, more of a local thing. We’ll stay at the record shop with him and his family the time we’re there and we’ll do small collaboration on a t-shirt project. I don’t know how long we’ve known each other but it’s probably been under 10 years, so it’ll be a good reunion.
PAN M 360 : And what’s the role of the DJ for you? How do you feel it has changed throughout the years?
Lucas Hunter: It’s such a huge part of my persona and my identity, we’ve been doing it for over 20 years now – first parties I was DJing was like 99’ early 2000’s – so the role of the DJ is like half of my life now. If you’re talking about the role of a DJ in the public, in the party, it means different things. I’m a big fan of DJs that somehow manage to bring their own flavour and their own taste of music to the party, but also remembering that they’re there to provide a service, and make a party be as good as it can be; which can be confused sometimes, as some DJs sometimes impose too much of their taste and style on people and ignore the ambiance of the party. I think the role of the DJ is to be super sensitive to what’s happening in the party, what people are looking for, what works, what can they repeat, without going too far in one direction. It’s a thin line between making a good job and the ego taking over. So yeah, to temper your ego and help create an atmosphere.
Michael Ho: Yeah, I agree with everything he says. It has changed a lot since I started out, it was much more about like “oh listen to this kind of music I have to play”, you know, much more ego driven. You have to weave that balance. Now it’s much more about doing your best to create an atmosphere in the room with your taste. It’s your job to find new music – not necessarily new but unheard – to present to people. There’s some sort of responsibility to the people who make the music. I like to play a lot of old music but I also make the point to play new music because being a producer myself, I would like that others play my music too, you know, contributing to the whole environment.
PAN M 360: Yeah, you mostly listen and mix music of the old days that has been forgotten. Do you consider yourself nostalgic? Do you feel disappointed at what’s being produced right now or how it’s been consumed?
Michael Ho: Not at all disappointed, there’s good new music all the time, maybe there’s just a shit of volume that makes you have to look a little bit harder… In terms of the nostalgia thing I guess I do reference a lot of things. We grew up in a certain era, that’s why Klasse Wrecks is not just music, it’s also books, apparel… we’re sensitive to that, the music is just one part of the whole history and every history evokes a different feeling to us, and that carries on to the present; even though we do play new music, there’s always a reference to a certain time which we’re excited about.
Lucas Hunter: Yeah I’m definitely nostalgic. The music that we grew up listening to as teenagers will always resonate with you, always gonna stick with you. So for me it’s like a comfort place that I’ve kinda built. When I start listening to too much other new music, I start to question my own choices and what what we should be doing with the label, and I’ve come to realise over the years that the easiest way for me is to be ignorant a little bit of what’s going on, so I don’t check new stuff so much because it usually affects me in a way that’s detrimental to making and releasing music. Some of my favourite music is from the 80’s, 90’s, 00’s… I think that’s when it was most creative for EDM music. There’s always good stuff out there but it’s kind of like a survival method for me to avoid what’s going on. It’s an ego thing and an inferiority thing, and I would just be too affected by what’s going on.
PAN M 360 : The rave culture has deeply changed from its roots in the 90’s compared to now, and you’ve experienced that in the first person. Could you go a bit deeper on this subject?
Michael Ho: I don’t think you can bring back certain eras – time just moves it would be futile to bring back a certain era. Technology has changed, communication between us… but I can say I feel very blessed to have experienced that era. It was pretty special not having all the information. Having to really discover everything, I mean you really have to use your imagination, let’s say I hear a track that I like and I want to recreate, there’s no video showing you that, so you have to create something based on your memory which is already kinda blurry.
Lucas Hunter: Yeah I agree with Michael, it’d be futile to try and replicate an old 90’s house rave. That belonged in those times. We do experience times though that are as good as before. There’s a lot of pessimism around the parties of today, but we travel around the world all the time and you do get a glimpse of how it felt back in those days. And you see a lot even in big commercial parties and big stuff that they’re doing with a no phone or photo policy. It’s kind of the spirit, it’s still there. We’re reaching a level of saturation and overpopulation of social media in clubs and I think people are getting a little bit bored of it, it’s kind of slowly ending. In the end people just wanna go to a club and dance and I don’t think that’s ever gonna change. It suffers sometimes because of the economy and Covid and things like that, but there’s no danger of it disappearing. It’s good to change and good to adapt.
PAN M 360: What have you been listening to lately?
Michael Ho: A bunch of stuff I don’t usually listen to… Country music… I don’t know anything about it. There’s something really nice, how it’s recorded, what elements are important, such as the voice because it’s very present. It’s very interesting because it’s very different from what I’m used to.
Lucas Hunter: Same actually, I’ve been listening a lot to guitar music, more conventional Rock or Indie, not Electronic music; so I’ve been listening to The B-52s quite a lot and really enjoying their universe; and been revisiting a band called A.R.E Weapons, who were around the early 2000’s released on Rough Trade from New York. They have a really cool discography that kinda sounds like Suicide, Nico or Velvet Underground kind of stuff. But yeah I’ve been really enjoying listening to stuff completely different from what we do.
PAN M 360: Nice! Well, thank you so much for making the time to talk and I hope you enjoy Montréal!
LH & MH: Thanks!
